UPDATED: Lyttelton Port rejects logistics officer pay claim

April 28 (BusinessDesk)
– Peter Davie, chief executive of Lyttelton Port Co, says
the South Island’s biggest port operator has rejected a
demand for a 4 percent pay rise from logistics officers and
will use managers to cover their work during a strike this
week.

The company’s 11 logistics officers, who are
responsible for planning the movement of freight and cargo
across the wharves, will strike from 11 pm on Friday until 7
am Saturday morning after talks broke down over the pay
demand, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union said. The
company had offered a 2.85 percent increase over 12
months.

“The work that those people do will be covered
by management staff so there won’t be any disruption to
our shipping services as a result of it,” Davie told
BusinessDesk. “It’s not our major workforce, they’re a
group that does a specialist job for us.”

“The 4
percent they’re asking for is well above the rate of
inflation and what other people are getting, so we don’t
think it’s warranted given that they’re not prepared to
have any discussions in the negotiations around
productivity.”

While the union said it is “happy” to
discuss productivity, Davie says by the labour body won’t
discuss it until agreement has been reached on the pay
rise.

The port’s shares fell 0.6 percent to $3.17 on the
NZX and have gained 39 percent in the past year. The stock
is tightly held with Christchurch City Holdings, the
investment arm of the council, owning about 80 percent of
the company, while Port Otago holds 15 percent.

RMTU said
port management didn’t want to set a precedent for
negotiations for a wider collective agreement which covers
over 400 port workers. Negotiations have been ongoing since
before Christmas with the union arguing the increase would
only cost the company $10,000 and it has set a precedent by
giving Davie himself a pay rise.

Davie’s remuneration
rose 2.5 percent last financial year to $1.05 million,
according to the port’s annual report. He says his own pay
is “irrelevant” to the industrial dispute.

“If they
want to ask what workers around the country have gained, the
average wage increase is not 4 percent, it’s a lot lower
than that, I can guarantee them that,” Davie said. “I
think the union needs to start being realistic in their
demands.”

“There hasn’t been any negotiation, it’s
just been a demand – we want this or else. We don’t
think that’s a negotiation quite frankly,” he said.

In February the port resumed dividend payments for the
first time since they were suspended in 2010 following
damage sustained in the Canterbury earthquakes. The company
had a $438.3 million settlement with Vero, NZI and QBE, of
which it recognised $357.6 million in insurance income in
the six months ended Dec. 31,
2013.

The Wellington-based BusinessDesk team led by former Bloomberg Asian top editor Jonathan Underhill and Qantas Award-winning journalist and commentator Pattrick Smellie provides a daily news feed for a serious business audience.

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